A lamination process of flexible thin films can involve a Roll-to-Roll laminating method, or a non-roll-to-roll laminating method.
The carrier substrates employed by the roll-to-roll laminating method are flexible carrier substrates, and the laminating method is to laminate flexible thin films and the flexible carrier substrates by rolling pressing of two rollers. The non-roll-to-roll laminating method usually employs rigid carrier substrates, and the laminating method is to laminate an adhesive layer over the surface of the rigid carrier substrate first, and then to laminate a flexible thin film over the adhesive layer, thereby the flexible thin film and the carrier substrate are bonded together.
The laminated flexible thin film can have a film layer to be patterned deposited thereon, such as an indium tin oxide (ITO) layer. A patterned film can be obtained after the patterning of the film layer.
After the patterning of the film layer that is deposited on the surface of the flexible thin film, the flexible thin film needs to be separated from the carrier substrate, so that subsequent manufacturing processes can be performed. Because in the non-roll-to-roll laminating process, the flexible thin film is bonded with the rigid carrier substrate tightly through an adhesive layer, it is somewhat difficult to lift off the flexible thin film from the rigid carrier substrate.
Existing technologies typically involve directly lifting off the flexible thin film from the adhesive layer by mechanical force, or separating the flexible thin film from the adhesive layer by heating or cooling so as to reduce the adhesion between the two layers. These lift-off methods can easily result in damages and/or wrinkles to the flexible thin film and can cause the patterned film on the surface of the flexible thin film, such as ITO pattern, to crack, adversely affecting the performance of the pattern.